Every so often, a student comes to us with an “ah-ha” moment in which the value of the MSL in their workplace becomes so blatantly clear. Combining their STEM backgrounds with their newfound legal knowledge and skills, they offer new insight into an unconsidered area and even avoid would-be disastrous situations. Read this below account from MSL Student Kyle Dombeck with his recent “MSL Moment.”

I’ll admit, being a scientist and a natural skeptic, as many of us are, when I began my MSL studies I wasn’t sure if I believed all that the MSL program said it accomplishes.  But after doing the painstaking groundwork, taking the classes, looking at the bigger picture, and getting outside confirmation that I am doing things the right way – the kind of trial and review strategy any good scientist would use – I am now well past my initial skepticism.  The MSL program works. All the preaching about ‘bridging the gap between science, technology and law’ and ‘thinking like a lawyer’ really is all it’s cracked up to be.

When I started the MSL program as a part-time student, and for the better part of my undergraduate career at the University of Iowa, I studied Parkinson’s Disease as a research assistant. I’m now in my third year of the program, and currently occupy a fellowship position with the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona as the soleInnovative Patent Strategist. The position was intended for JD students who wanted to take a path other than doing a clerkship over their 2L summer. Shout out to Prof. David Schwartz for facilitating my initial communication with the Barrow Innovation Center’s director, and to Kettil (MSL career advisor and resident magician) for helping me refine my resume and teaching me a magic trick or two. All of their help and support—except the magic tricks—undoubtedly contributed to my eventual acceptance of the position; though, maybe the tricks did, too, and I just didn’t realize it…thus is magic. This fall, I’ll return to Chicago to finish up my MSL degree with the last few classes I need to graduate, and I’ll bounce back and forth to Phoenix throughout the year to continue my work.

Though I value the time I spent as a researcher, at some point, I realized that I didn’t want to do research for the rest of my life. The MSL program presented itself to me as a last-ditch effort to pry myself from research’s firm grasp. For me, to be blatantly honest, money was a prevalent issue, and the sad reality is that in academic research, there exists a stark absence of it; but I knew I wanted to remain near to science in whatever it was I decided to pursue. That the MSL program catered specifically to those with a STEM background, like myself, was particularly appealing because I (rightly) assumed that I’d be amongst others with similar backgrounds and be able to maintain the constancy of scientific grounding even as we all embarked on learning about this foreign subject of law. The interest I had in innovation—a focus of the MSL curriculum—and the prospect of landing myself in a better-paying field further contributed significantly to my decision to enroll.

So here I am, finally realizing just how much it has all paid off! I’m satisfied with the salary in my current position, AND I find the work incredibly satisfying. I get to continue being in an environment I’m familiar with and conversant in – scientific research and development – while also getting to use my newfound skills in law, kindled by the MSL program.

This realization dawned upon me in a typical workday.  I was meeting with our in-house counsel – himself a PhD in microbiology – to review my draft of a provisional patent, due to be filed at the end of the week, when I suddenly realized that he had a consequential misunderstanding about the underlying technology of the invention we were trying to protect.   Over the two weeks prior to our conversation, I had become about as knowledgeable of electric fields as anybody could possibly be in that amount of time – I had consulted with the inventor and our in-house counsel, I had conducted numerous prior art searches, and I had independently written the entire 38-page provisional application.  I tip my hat to my scientific background, which, while rarely involving electric fields, at least provided me with the skillset to understand the material.

To the extent that I can talk about it, the device on which we were seeking patent protection shares aspects with another technology, which stakes claims that could have been problematic in the pursuit of exclusionary rights for the device we were developing.  Being in such a situation was cool enough for me, as I got to practice in real life the skills I had worked to develop through the MSL program. I had attempted to strategically draft our provisional application in a manner that would circumvent key claims in the troublesome patent.

During my conversation with our counsel, I came to realize that he was confused about a component of the other existing technology. And since he was the person who would likely be writing the non-provisional application down the line, I knew that it was essential to get this cleared up; incorporating this confusion into the non-provisional patent application would prove disastrous for us down the line.  On the spot, I explained what he had misunderstood about the interactions of the devices’ claims.  It hit me instantly that this was the “MSL moment.” Had it not been for my learned ability to “bridge the gap,” “think like a lawyer,” and all the other variations on that theme, we likely wouldn’t be able to capture the technology we wished to capture. That is to say, while I may have been able to discern the difference between our in-house counsel’s understanding and the correct understanding, I wouldn’t have been able to recognize it as a lynchpin for the patentability of our device and wouldn’t have been able to communicate my scientific understanding in legal terms to a legal professional.

More and more I find myself acting in this role of liaison between scientists and legal professionals, and this is evidence of just how much I’ve learned in my time in MSL program. I hope any future, current, and past MSL students reading this can identify with my pride in calling Northwestern Law home and, like I have, can reflect upon the knowledge they’ve gleaned from the program as having positively impacted their professional careers. The MSL program is a testament to progressive and translational education and it charts a great direction for anyone wishing to branch out from traditional STEM paths. I look forward eagerly to more “MSL Moments” and to continuing to use the unique skills I’ve developed throughout my time in the program.

Repping the MSL program in AZ with some very wet SWAG!

– Kyle Dombeck, MSL Student